sarah woodjetts​multi channel ecommerce consultant

The Netherlands

With a population of over 16.7million and 90% of its residents online, it is no surprise that The Netherlands have been named one of the Top 5 Ecommerce ready European countries. In 2011, roughly 8.5 million people purchased something online and at the end of that year, the value of the online market was estimated to be €9b. Statistics show that despite the huge number of Dutch people registered to social networking sites (7.3m on Facebook and 3.2m on Twitter), only 2% of people online used the Internet solely for that purpose. 39% of people in The Netherlands use the Internet solely for shopping, spending most on travel, then entertainment tickets and telecoms respectively. Here in the UK, we may find that the service we use most frequently for payment is PayPal or directly entering our card details. The Dutch have their own platform for payments, a system called “iDeal”, which is responsible for 54% of online sales in The Netherlands. Research has shown that leaving iDeal out as a method of payment could be detrimental to your sales by 55%, should you be targeting the Dutch market that is. Despite being one of the Top EU Countries for Ecommerce, only 18% of Dutch people shop across the border. This could be due to international shipping not being readily available to The Netherlands or may just be personal preference; either way, if you’re looking to increase your sales to the Dutch, be sure to stay local. The growth of the online market in The Netherlands is looking to be a 10% increase by next year, something that the Ecommerce world is sure to find appealing.